Civil Code reform hearings begin

The Civil Code reform project triggered by the national government began today with a series of public hearings at the Congress’ Bicameral committee, and the presence of Justice Minister Julio Alak, who also gave an opening speech.

Justice Minister Julio Alak affirmed that the reform does not aim the pesification of the economy, but "add coherence to the abolition of the convertibility law" by allowing the payment in pesos of the debts in dollars.

The minister stated during the debate that "contracts in foreign currency are legal, not forbidden as in Brazil," and that in those cases of contracts between privates, the debt in dollars can be cancelled in pesos.

Debates will continue every Tuesday and Thursday until September 8 at the Congress’ Bicameral committee to then move forward nationwide as hearings and debates will be set in other provinces as well.

The project aims to merge both Civil and Commerce codes, and reduce their current number of articles - 4,000 and 506 respectively - to a total of 2,671.

Beside senators and deputies, the hearing was also attended by individual citizens and NGOs that had previously subscribed to the hearings.